Question about trash pits

[CoilyGirl]

We went to detect two houses side by side that are up for rent and my first signal yielded a heavy lead object a few inches down.to the side of the hole was a solid gray stone rectangle that was not irregular and in the hole I keep finding bits of charred material. Could I be on a trash pit.. The houses that stand now were built in the 1920's but this town is older than that and the mister found an old brass roller type buckle that is Civil War era.We have a probe,and the ground all over the yard is very soft.

 

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[Frankn]

Charred remains, lead box, stone marker! Put their pet's remains back in the ground! Frank...

 

[old digger]

Maybe an old outhouse or old garage once was there and burned down.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Noooo Frannnkkk I don't think I dug up Frisky! Maybe I should dig a foot or so across from what I think is a stone wall of sorts to see if there is another wall on the other side of it.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

What ever it is HH !

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

look under the stone...sounds like it could be a hearth...walk a few paces away and find the lintel stone?

 

[CoilyGirl]

Pippin the stone I found(which looked a little bit like a foundation wall maybe) was only about three inches down.We're headed there after lunch for a few hours and I will have to poke around a little bit more.I tend to get overexcited about nothing!

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

good luck!

 

[Tnmountains]

Never hurts to run a probe over an old house site and find the privy. Many times I hit old tree stumps that have rotted out. If you have a good probe you can look at the tip and see what you are hitting. Many treasures are deeper that our detectors. Trick is finding a homesite where they were not dirt poor and just surviving.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

If it is a Civil War Trash pit you are going to be getting lot of iron signals mixed in with broken glass (possibly intact bottles) lot of ash in the soil. Dig out a test hole 10-20 inches deep and see if you hit any signals.. Remember - Iron is your friend. If you dig down 10-20 inches and hit iron and it is CW era keep digging the hole out.. Lot of work on a trash pit but the reward can be great. If you get down 10-20 inches and start hitting lead like bullets or melted lead then you know you are into something, then you need to find where the pocket of the pit is.. I have dug out trash pits 3 feet deep up to 8 feet deep... Good luck with it.

 

[CoilyGirl]

We actually have an old map of the two houses we are hunting and there is some sort of building marked where we have probed,verrry soft but then again we hit a few solid parts on the side and sounded like another bottle to me.I actually dug a humongous chunk of what I at first thought was rock a few days ago but it was melted metal( several feet away from where we think the trash pit might be) but not the normal color of CW lead.I'm hoping to go back today for a little bit but want to save digging in that one spot till my husband can go.We are getting tons of mixed signals all over the yard and digging tons of charred material that isn't exactly charcoal looking but almost a dark purple and lightweight.I will post a picture of the chunk of lead type material in a bit.Edited to add stupid rain kept me from going back today.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Here's the chunk of lead but what baffles me is that all of it is not white like oxidized CW lead usually is.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Lead mostly melted lead doesn't always look White-ish after being in the ground 150+ years depending on the wear and tear on it and how small or big the lead is,etc - like if it is just small pieces of melted lead and not an actual size like 39 ringer. Notice the civil war melted lead in the photo like the one in the middle and some of the other ones how the white is dissolving on the pieces of "melted lead" From what I see in the photo it looks possible for Civil War melted lead you have but- normally cw era melted lead that you find around camp sites and such are look like the ones in the photo.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Lead mostly melted lead doesn't always look White-ish after being in the ground 150+ years depending on the wear and tear on it and how small or big the lead is,etc - like if it is just small pieces of melted lead and not an actual size like 39 ringer. Notice the civil war melted lead in the photo like the one in the middle and some of the other ones how the white is dissolving on the pieces of "melted lead" From what I see in the photo it looks possible for Civil War melted lead you have but- normally cw era melted lead that you find around camp sites and such are look like the ones in the photo.

That is what confused us too,that the pieces were in a glob like that and with no identifiable pieces.Im wondering if maybe those bits of lead could have been just slag of some sort from something they were burning in the yard.I can't wait to start digging around that back corner though.

 

[Helix]

So if the house or houses were built in the 1920's so it might not have a privy pit but might have a trash pit. Did the town have trash pick up in the 1920's, that might be a good question. But then again there could of been a older house on that that lot. Then you would have privy for sure. If its in a town that was founded in say 1850 you know that lot has seen lots of activity if there was a building there or not. Could of been the front or side yard of a much older home!! Good luck I hope you all find a pit loaded full of 1860's bottles and goodies!

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Lead mostly melted lead doesn't always look White-ish after being in the ground 150+ years depending on the wear and tear on it and how small or big the lead is,etc - like if it is just small pieces of melted lead and not an actual size like 39 ringer. Notice the civil war melted lead in the photo like the one in the middle and some of the other ones how the white is dissolving on the pieces of "melted lead" From what I see in the photo it looks possible for Civil War melted lead you have but- normally cw era melted lead that you find around camp sites and such are look like the ones in the photo.

Meant to say 69 ringer not 39

 

[CoilyGirl]

Helix not sure if they had trash pick up in the 20's but I found the bottom of a blob top soda bottle just a half mile or so away so the town is old.You may be onto something that there could have been an older house on that and maybe that was their privvy.Anyway this weather needs to warm up so I can get back there!

 

[CoilyGirl]

Pulling this thread back up because the mister was just looking at the census records from the early 1900's and it turns out one of the residents was a machinist.Could that explain this odd conglomeration of metal bits?